Big ones. Huge. Beyond calculation. It goes light years past rooting for the 76 ers or the Knicks, or the Eagles or the Giants, or the Phillies or the Mets. Or preferring mustard on your soft pretzel, for that matter.

It’s a pride thing.

Bryant seeks his fourth NBA championship and Artest and the Houston Rockets stand in his way. Artest seeks an upset of Bryant and the Lakers. Bryant and Artest will clash starting tonight in Game 1 of the second-round playoff series.

Ask Bryant about playing against Artest and all you get is a tight smile.

Ask Artest about playing against Bryant and you get a whole lot more.

For instance, Artest said during a jaw-dropping TV interview last week that guarding Brandon Roy of the Portland Trail Blazers in the opening round of the playoffs was the toughest defensive assignment of his NBA career.

Tougher to guard than Bryant?

Yes, Artest said.

Tougher to guard than Cleveland’s LeBron James?

Yes, Artest said again.

Artest also said during the interview with TNT’s Craig Sager that a childhood friend from Queens was tougher than anyone he had ever guarded in his life. Sager seemed at once stunned and bemused by Artest’s answers.

A couple of days later, after the Rockets eliminated Roy and the Trail Blazers, Artest told David Aldridge of TNT that Roy was “the toughest guy I ever guarded. He’s the only guy to ever score 40 against me, that hasn’t happened in 10 years (in the NBA).

“You have to respect that.”

Actually, it was 42 points in Game 2, but who’s counting?

The next day, Artest did his best to put things right, telling a reporter from the Houston Chronicle that he couldn’t figure out a way “to judge who’s better.” Artest acknowledged that “(Bryant) is a good player. He might be better. I don’t know.”

Given a chance to talk up his one-on-one battle with Artest, which figures to be the marquee matchup of the series, Bryant offered only a dull response Saturday.

“It’s fun,” Bryant said. “He’s obviously a great defender.”

Bryant had a good deal more to say to Artest while the two squared off (literally, as it turned out) March 11 in Houston. Bryant was in the midst of torching the Rockets for 37 points on 14-for-23 shooting, leading the Lakers to a 102-96 victory.

Artest asked mid-game to guard Bryant, who responded by scoring 31 of his 37 points in the second half to rally the Lakers. Artest and Bryant played and talked a great game, waging a war of wills and words.

Things reached a boiling point in the fourth quarter, when they took things physical and received matching technical fouls with 6:54 left. Bryant then carried the Lakers to a hard-earned victory.

In fact, Bryant and the Lakers kicked Artest and the Rockets pretty good this season. Bryant averaged 28.3 points on 53 percent shooting in four games, all Lakers victories. He also averaged four rebounds and five assists in 38.3 minutes.

Artest averaged 13.3 points on 32.6 percent shooting, five rebounds and two assists in 37.3 minutes in three games against the Lakers.

Lakers sixth man Lamar Odom has played with Bryant since 2004-05, but he’s known and played with and against Artest since they were youths growing up in New York.

Odom gives the edge to Bryant in this showdown – sort of.

“I don’t think Kobe has anything to prove,” Odom said. “Ron is great at working off intimidation. He’s always been like that. That’s why he’s so good at what he does. That’s why he’s probably the best perimeter one-on-one defensive player in the NBA.”

Asked about their highly publicized trash-talking during the Lakers’ victory over the Rockets back in March, Odom shrugged as if to dismiss it as a natural course of events for two highly competitive players.

“I don’t think they’re playing a tit-for-tat game, you know what I’m saying?” Odom said. “Kobe is the best. Kobe Bryant is a person who scored 81 points (in a Jan. 22, 2006 game against Toronto), but Ron is a heck of a defender.

Elliott Teaford covers the Clippers and the NBA for the Southern California News Group. He has written about hockey for the past five years and is looking forward to thawing out after so many days and nights sitting in frozen rinks. He also covered the Lakers for five seasons, including their back-to-back NBA championships in 2009 and '10. He once made a jump shot over future Utah Jazz center Mark Eaton during a pickup game in 1980 at Cypress College.

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